YouTube’s Highest-Paid Stars Are Led by a 7-Year-Old Multi-Millionaire: Forbes

With the year coming to a close, American business magazine Forbes has revealed its list of the world’s highest-paid YouTube stars in 2018, which is headed by a 7-year-old named Ryan who reviews toys. His channel, aptly named Ryan ToysReview, reportedly pulled in $22 million (about Rs. 154.84 crore) during the 12-month period ending June 1, 2018. That is exactly double what Ryan made in the previous year, according to Forbes, when he was placed eighth in the 2017 list.

The rest of Forbes’ top 10 highest-paid YouTube stars list is made up of much older people, including the likes of brothers Jake and Logan Paul, five-man sports crew Dude Perfect, makeup artist-beauty mogul Jeffree Star, and five gamers: Daniel “DanTDM” Middleton, Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach, Evan “VanossGaming” Fong, Seán “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin, and Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg. In total, the top 10 grossed $180.5 million (about Rs. 1,270.26 crore) by Forbes’ calculations, which is up 42 percent from last year.

Except Jeffree Star and Jacksepticeye, the other eight were also part of Forbes’ 2017 list of highest-paid YouTube stars, albeit in a different arrangement. DanTDM led then with $16.5 million (about Rs. 100 crore) and though his 2018 earnings are up — $18.5 million (about Rs. 130.21 crore) — he has still conceded the top spot to Ryan. Jake Paul went from 7th in 2017 to 2nd in 2018, bringing in $21.5 million (about Rs. 151.32 crore) in the process, while his controversial brother Logan dropped six places to 10th.

It seems scandals can’t hurt you enough when you’re as big as Logan or PewDiePie. In the former’s case, YouTube kicked him off the preferred ad programme after the Japan suicide video while the latter lost his YouTube deal after anti-Semitic videos. PewDiePie still has the most-subscribed YouTube channel, for now, and $15.5 million (about Rs. 109 crore) in earnings despite all that.

Here’s the full list of the top 10 highest-earning YouTubers via Forbes: